Selling cars takes more than a handshake and a smile. It takes data. That’s why Alan Fink, Internet-sales manager at Freeman Toyota in Santa Rosa, Calif., built a FileMaker Pro database. “I needed a way to keep track of my customers, inventory, commissions, taxes, payroll – everything to do with sales here at the dealership,” said Fink. “Now it’s an integral part of my job and it’s used in the dealership every day.”
Fink can also access the database wherever he is with a mobile version of the software called FileMaker Go. “This job is really seven days a week,” he said. “If I get an inquiry from a customer on my day off, I need to respond right away. With FileMaker Go, I have all the information I need on my iPad and I can answer immediately.”
Fink got his start selling computers, so he’s a tech-savvy guy. He worked for a national electronics retailer, and eventually became a sales manager and regional manager. He acquired his computer skills along the way and put those skills to use for a chain of high-end clothing stores based in Sausalito, Calif. “Computers and sales have always been part of my professional life,” he said. “It’s a natural progression.”
As the Internet sales manager at Freeman Toyota, Fink fields e-mail inquiries and manages online advertising for the dealership. He also sells cars. That’s where his database comes in handy. “The car business is complicated, especially from a salesman’s viewpoint,” he said. “Each dealer has its own pay plan and sales incentives and bonuses. And they change all the time. I originally created a database to track my own sales and pay schedules.”
It was only logical to add customer information and dealer inventory. “I export comma or tab-delineated files from the dealer database system and import them into FileMaker,” he said. “I always have an up-to-date inventory of the cars in our dealership that I can easily search and sort.”
The database also comes in handy when the dealership has a special sale. “Now if we want to put all the Camry’s on sale, for instance, we can do a quick search in the database and tell it to take $500 off the sale price,” said Fink. “It’ll figure the prices for the cars on the lot and print out sale signs to hang on the rear-view mirrors. It saves a tremendous amount of time.”
But while Fink’s original database was super useful, it was trapped on his desktop PC. “I started dreaming of a mobile version when the iPad came out,” he said. “I didn’t have access to my database at home without logging into the dealership network. It was just a lot of trouble.” When FileMaker Go was released, Fink downloaded it from the iTunes App store. “I loaded it on my iPad and transferred the database over,” he said. “It was fast and painless.” •
Daniel Kehrer can be reached at editor@business.com.
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